Essays, Analyses and Meditations

Beyond Knowledge

There is more to human knowledge than just "knowledge". If we built
a computer that has all the knowledge in the world, that machine would not
behave like a human being: it would behave like a machine. Humans have at least
two faculties that dramatically alter the way they use knowledge: common sense
and morality.

Common sense interferes with knowledge. A social system relies as much on
considerate disobedience of the rules as on absolute obedience to the rules.

Morality drives the use of knowledge. We don't just kill and steal based
on our knowledge of what is there and how to get it.

Humans are better at disobeying rules than at obeying them. That's why we
have to write down the rules and then enforce them with police and courts.
Disobeying rules is a fundamental feature of the human brain, and it is
precisely what makes humans "smarter" than the fastest computer.

As society creates more and more obedient citizens, it is turning them
into machines. Such human machines behave in a nonsensical and amoral manner
just like machines do.

We are not training machines to become like humans but humans to become like machines.